Salt Not Sugar

Salt Not Sugar Matthew 5:13-16 Last week, we learned that truth is not a half-truth. At work, if a co-worker only provides half of the instructions, your boss will still be mad because only half of the work is done. Think of building a house; we don’t see a half-built house and say, “Welp, time to move it.” You give someone only half of a recipe, it’s still no good. And if you tell someone only half the Gospel, you’re endangering their eternity. And that’s what today’s message is about. Don’t simply tell people what they want to hear because you’re afraid to offend them. Don’t avoid the truth by trying to “sell” God instead of preaching His Word. In other words, Don’t Sugar Coat the Gospel! When we sugarcoat the Gospel, all we’re doing is playing with eternity, because telling people what they want to hear does them no good. Instead of showing a sinner their need for Christ, sugar coating the Bible only makes them feel better about themselves. Instead of emphasizing their sinful behavior, sugar coating the Bible only de-emphasizes their sinful behavior. And when a sinners sin is no longer sinful, why then do they need a sinless Christ to forgive them of their sin? All too often our fear of witnessing for Christ arises out of our desire for acceptance. We learned last week that Saul desired popularity with people over reverence with God. He feared people more than God, and that’s where our mission to evangelize and make disciples becomes real. And in an attempt to do our Christian duty by witnessing to others, too many Christian’s shy away from talking about sin, out of fear. Their conscience tells them to share the Gospel with everyone, but their fear dictates how they’ll do it. They fear people more than God. So what is truth? It’s not preaching Christ’s love while avoiding His Justice. God is love. But perfect love requires perfect justice. Love doesn’t reward evil with the good. Love doesn’t blur the line between good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust. Love is God’s Law written on stone, placed within your heart, and seen in the cross. Truth is not hidden in the dark but revealed in the Light. Truth walked outta the tomb. When a person sugar coat’s the Bible by reducing the severity of sin, what their doing is essentially creating a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all. Justice is important to us, but even more so with God. God revealed His Law, His standard to us in the Bible. Sugarcoating the Bible is nothing more than lowering God’s perfect standard down to our imperfect standard. It’s essentially replacing God’s truth with a truth that we’re more comfortable with. It’s placing our authority higher than God’s because we like our truth better than God’s. People crave the sweet things in life which ultimately won’t last, instead of the things seasoned with salt that continually last. Some people claim that there are many truths in the world. The person in line behind you at Walmart may not disagree with you that truth exists, but they may tell you there is no such thing as a truth that’s the same for everyone, at every time, in every place. In other words, truth is what’s right for you at a certain time and place. But truth is not what we make it, because we can be wrong. Now I’m not saying that you can’t discover certain truth’s for yourself. But the main problem with the world’s idea of truth is that it always has to be altered whenever new facts are discovered. There’s a story about a woman who worked at a business office. Every day for her coffee break, she would leave her desk and go to the break room where she would buy at Kit Kat candy bar from the vending machine, and a cup of coffee. This day was no different. After finding a small table in the corner and seating herself, she leaned over to search for something in her purse. When she sat up again, a gentleman had sat down across from her at the table. He had a cup of coffee, a doughnut, and her Kit Kat bar in his mouth. He didn’t apologize or offer any explanation. He just ate it. Needless to say, she was surprised and irritated but said nothing. As quickly as possible, she drank her coffee, and the more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Finally, she stood up to leave, stomped over beside him, grabbed his doughnut, and shoved it in her mouth! Trying her best, she yelled out, “There. How does that feel!” and marched back to her office. Back at her desk, she once again opened her purse, but to her horror, there on top was her Kit Kat candy bar! Funny Story, but one that’s filled with truth. For that woman, at that moment her truth was that someone else was eating her candy bar. Her perception of the truth was based upon want, and her action was based upon how she responded to her version of that truth. The Bible says in John 1:9-11, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.” They didn’t receive Christ because they didn’t recognize Him. And they didn’t recognize Christ because the light brightened their sin but darkened their need for a Savior. To not recognize sin is not to recognize God. Not knowing what sin is, is not knowing what Christ has done. It’s being out of focus because Christ’s Cross is not in focus. It’s not recognizing the Light of Christ, and it's dimming our light to the point where we can’t tell what’s true from what’s untrue. I call it transitional truth. I call it that because you know those Transition Lenses you can buy for your glasses? They continually change by either getting lighter or darker depending upon the brightness of the light at a given moment. If it’s getting brighter outside the lens becomes darker, and vice a versa, when it gets darker, the light becomes brighter. Well, the problem is people started gauging truth like those glasses. The Bible says in John 3:20 that “Everyone who does evil hates the light…for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” So when an evil person is confronted with Light, they immediately are blinded and turn darker. They see the truth but diminish and demoralize the truth into something that they can see better. They transition into something that is more comfortable for them. Likewise, if someone is in darkness and the light gets brighter, one of two things will happen. Either they’ll embrace the light and come to the truth. Or, become angered in their conviction that the light brings and love the darkness even more. They take offense at being told their truth isn’t truth and become bitter in their vain attempts to turn a lie into truth. Light expels darkness; it doesn’t enhance it. Light brings deeds into view, and salt flavor’s that view to create a thirst for the one who is Light, Jesus Christ. Have you ever got a Christmas or birthday gift that you were excited about at first, but over time it wound up in the closet? Instead of using the gift, it just sits collecting dust. When asked if you still had the gift, you could say, “Yep, I do.” Salvation can be like that. Excitement fizzles down, and before you know it, it’s just another thing you’ve stored away. Thankful you have it, but not enough to display it. Don’t be content with having God’s gift of salvation just to store it in your closet. Do you still have salvation? Yes. Whether it’s stored away or used, the gift is still in your possession. But just like salt, if it’s not used, what good is it? We are meant to be the salt of the earth, but if we’re not seasoning the world with God’s Word, then what good are we? Salt is connected with purity. No doubt it’s glistening whiteness made this connection easy. Even the Romans said that salt was the purest of all things because it came from purest of all things, the sun and the sea. For a Christian to be the salt of the earth, we need to be an example of purity. One characteristic of today’s world is it’s lowering of standards. Standards of honesty, integrity, work ethic and moral standards are all declining. All of us know people in whose company it’s easier to be good. Likewise, all of us know people whose standards are much lower. No matter who we’re around, Christian’s must confront these declining standards by living by a higher standard; God’s! God’s standard tells us to be pure in thought, in speech, and in conduct. The Christian must always exemplify purity. One who talks with salt and reflects God’s light. This world is confused about what truth is, and this confusion causes corruption. Salt hinders the spread of corruption and light exposes it. Your presence, like salt, must defeat corruption by making it easier for others to be good, while light guides them to the One who is good, God. We can’t make it easier for others to be good if we keep their sin hidden in the dark. Instead, we must expose sin with the Light of Christ, who alone is good, and show them their need for a Savior. Light is something meant to be seen, meaning a Christian’s life is always visible. Light is a guide which makes God’s truth clear. Christian’s live in and reflect God’s light, thereby making it clear who we serve. Light is also a warning light, alerting others of danger ahead. Your light is to prosper the poor and strengthen the weak. Don’t hide your light by staying quite instead of speaking the truth. Don’t let sin dim your light by going along with the crowd or ignoring the needs of others. The truth is God freely gave, so freely give in return. God has the recipe for salvation, and it contains only one step, place saving faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, but this one step contains more than one ingredient. To place faith in Christ, one must recognize their sinfulness, ask forgiveness, and trust in Christ. People need to know why they need a Savior. Once they recognize their sin, they need to realize that there’s nothing they can do to earn salvation. As Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” You wanna boast, boast in God’s free gift, not in your vain attempts to buy God’s free gift. If we sugarcoat God’s Word, we’re not telling people the truth. We’re handing out God’s salvation recipe, but leaving out the ingredients. Not telling someone the whole Gospel message is really no message at all. We can’t just tell people what they want to hear because all we’re doing is substituting for sugar for salt. Sugar may make something taste good, but it won’t last. It doesn’t create a thirst for the truth, because truth is not sugar or darkness. Truth is “all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Truth is our need for Christ’s cross. Amen.